The tree of Natura 2000 was planted in front of the Representative Office of the European Commission today

[imgleft">http://forthenature.org/upload/news/qwor4o1_malka.jpg[/imgleft">
“This we do as thanksgiving to the European institutions who are our main foreign partner in the effort to implement some common sense in the national environmental legislation and the control over the proper observance of this laws.”, say environmentalists.

Replanting the tree happens just a day before a group of petitioners will have a hearing on the severe violations over the European environmental laws in Bulgaria – including serious insufficiency of the environmental network, abuse with power from the national authorities, illegal overbuilding in Natura 2000 and numerous counterfeited documents and illegal approvals from state institutions. Andrey Kovachev from Bakans Wildlife Society, Vera Petkanchin – from Citizens for Rila and Nelly Arabdzhieva – from Green Balkans will represent the petitioner on the hearing in the European Parliament on 30 april 2009.

Hopefully their mission will accelerate the triggering of procedures against the violations. The situation in Bulgaria is very worrying and the illegal investors together with the politicians in the country believe that their business plans will be long finished before any counter reaction comes from Europe and the only chance is that this plans go wrong thanks to the numerous missions from environmental NGOs and the pressure from green MEPs in EP.